Latest Update from Villa Maria Team

Latest Update from Villa Maria Team

After 2 big weeks of intensive lessons, there has been quite a relaxation in the Spanish efforts of the group. One of the lessons turned into the traditional football tournament of Quest vs. Cristobal Colon School, thankfully, Quest did manage to win the matches. Following the tournament boys and girls did split up for the night, going with there teachers to discover a new part of the Ecuadorian capital nightlife.

On the Friday morning we left for Atacames at 6 AM.. being woken up by two outrageous and highly offensive American girls at the beginning of the 8 hours bus journey. Atacames revealed to possess a highly agressive sun which did massive bad effects on our European skin and most particularly on Sophie’s legs. However dance tournament on bars and massive banana tours in the water were also part of the weekend. The journey back from Atacames became for many people of the group a near death experience considering that the normal road was blocked and the bus had to cross the Amazonian forest for to hours on unsafe dirtroad.

The highlight of the end of the Quito session was the theatre. the group was split into different groups: One doing Blanca Nieve (Snow White) another Harry Potter a third a play involving a coz and finally the Oscars well, the Cristobal Colon oscars. The plays were followed by a goodbye party were the group did wear offensive outfits, and even lend them to certain teachers…

Moving onto Villa Maria

Finally the project. Arriving in Villa Maria has been associated with half of the group becoming ill, some even on the plane.

We discovered Villa Maria on the first day and started to work with the kids, we also met Jose, a small kid who just had a tumour removed thanks to fundraising from previous Quest volunteers. We finished the day with Bart’s birthday. On Saturday the 21st we had the first fair for the kids and discovered that water baloons were a highly important weapon in the shanty town. Sunday was a day where group dignity was finally and definitively lost, after a catwalk in bin bags we managed a choreography which would make the back street boys quite poor dancers.

The following week became quite a routine of working with kids, but we also met Ana Mariela, a small girl with a face tumour and for whom we decided to raise money… a succesful project for the moment.

Charity at Quest

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